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- Limited to Westcott, the latest
research about him.
- Influence of Westcott on John
Albert Broadus.
- Existence of a ‘Westcottian
Theology’ proved.
- Westcott and universal
incarnation of the Christ spirit.
- His socialism and mysticism
examined.
- His pantheistic ‘One Life’
concept traced to Coleridge.
- His affinity for Hindu
philosophy detailed.
- New understanding of John’s
gospel by Hindu thought.
- Battle for the ‘One Life’ to be
fought and won in India.
- Equivalence of the ‘One Life’,
and ‘The One.'
- ‘The One’, not in the KJB,
appears in the ERV and NIV.
- The story of ‘Westcott’s
Disciple’, William Marshall Teape and his secret
endowment of the Westcott Lectures.
Westcott, like Sinon who deceived the
Trojans, persuaded many that he was orthodox. The Trojans
themselves dragged the horse into their city, ignoring the
warning of Cassandra “beware of Greeks bearing gifts,” and
“with song and rejoicing they brought death in, treachery
and destruction.”
Although Westcott was not the first to use the minority
Alexandrian manuscripts, he was the man who, more than any
other, gave academic respectability and a false sense of
orthodox sanction to what has become known as the critical
text. The modern “eclectic” Nestle-Aland text of the New
Testament differs in less than 400 places from the Westcott-Hort
text. So in a very real sense the new versions can be said
to be Westcott’s. But he was able to gain the cooperation of
many others. How did this come to be?
There is a little known story in the Life And Letters Of
John Albert Broadus, founder of the Southern Baptist
Theological Seminary, which can instruct us. This biography
was written by Broadus’ student, A. T. Robertson, the great
Greek scholar, advocate of the critical text, and professor
at the seminary. In July 1868, three years after the
American Bible Union New Testament had appeared, Broadus
wrote an article in the Baptist Quarterly strongly defending
the last 12 verses of Mark. Burgon quoted from it freely. On
September 3, 1868 Westcott wrote a letter to Broadus
thanking him for sending a copy of the article, and said: “I
have read with interest the careful and sound criticism
which you have kindly called to my attention…with regard to
the passage of St. Mark, which you most ably analyze,
external evidence leaves no doubt, in my opinion, that it
was a very early addition to the gospel and not, I think, by
St. Mark…my experience too, in dealing very minutely with
the Greek text leads me to think that such a combination as
Aleph, B, k, arm is never wrong.” Robertson comments that
“Doctor Broadus afterward felt more uncertain about these
last verses of Mark.”
Then in 1870 Broadus Went To London, and on Oct. 15 he wrote
home: “on Wednesday at two o’clock I went to Westminster
Abbey, at the suggestion of Bishop Ellicott…I went to the
Deanery (A. P. Stanley is Dean), sent in my card with the
luncheon, and his Lordship came out saying that he had asked
leave of the committee just to bring me in for the half-hour
of luncheon. He introduced me in general at the door, and
then various gentlemen came up and shook hands…some of them
invited me to visit their cathedrals, others asked about the
South. Professor Lightfoot invited me to Cambridge quite
cordially. Mr. Westcott is a gentle, lovable-looking man,
with a mild, sweet tone, and with a devotional feeling
predominating in all his talk. I talked principally with him
and Mr. Hort about their forthcoming text of the New
Testament, in which I am much interested. Mr. Westcott
invited me warmly to Peterborough, where he is Canon.”
Unbeknownst to Broadus, the Westcott-Hort text was already
in the hands of the revisers. Robertson then commented
“Bishop Ellicott was all courtesy and kindness to Doctor
Broadus and left nothing undone that he could do for his
enjoyment.”
Political appeal to Broadus through “the pride of life”
eventually had its intended effect. On Oct. 28, 1891 Broadus
wrote to G. B. Taylor “I beg your pardon for not having
acknowledged the receipt of the photo-lithograph of the
Codex Vaticanus, which arrived in due time, and which I am
at present having my class examine with great interest and
profit.” He had moved a great distance, from defending the
last twelve verses of Mark to teaching his impressionable
students, “with profit,” the Vatican Codex, which omitted
these last twelve verses of Mark along with many others.
Westcott’s beliefs did influence his choice of Codices
Aleph, B, and D as sources for his Greek text. These beliefs
have been passed over either through ignorance and
carelessness or deliberate failure of reporting by those in
positions of influence at some of the most influential of
our fundamental schools, where the same scholarly pride that
so completely gripped John Albert Broadus is still in full
flower today.
Westcott’s academic influence was worldwide and continues to
the present time; so that the modern versions indeed can be
said to be Westcott’s Trojan Horse brought into our
churches. And how did Westcott change the truth of God into
a lie? Principally by teaching his doctrine of the One, the
One Life, which he said is the life of Christ universally
incarnate into all of creation.
The incarnation is a living shrine for the impersonal,
unknowable God of Plato and Philo Judea who achieved
consciousness in man; the life of Christ is the basis for
all else that is unfolded in time. Translation consistent
with this doctrine can be found in numerous places in the
new versions. In this mode of thinking Westcott translated
John 1:4 “that which hath been made was life in him.”
Individual lives do not exist apart from this vast One Life,
the only thing created. The One Life is the concept by which
Westcott changed the truth of God into the lie of pantheism.
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